belgians for noobs

[ronjonacron]

Ive been drinking craft beer for about 5 or 6 years now and have been homebrewing for almost 2. Im trying to start with basics and work my way out. It seems to me that "belgians" vary almost as much ad ales' themselves.

Ive had pretty much every different belgian offered in my local area. Now my question would be, what is the "pale ale" of belgians? Golden? Dubbel? Abbey/trappist?

Im gonna pick up a couple more books probably next week including brewing classic styles, and one another which the name evades right at this moment. Will a couple books give me a little more insight?

 

[ronjonacron]

Two specific ones that i really enjoyed were three philosophers (though a little on the get schwasted after 2 side) andt he unibroque coriander citrusy one. If that helps guide my original question at all.

 

[Cincy17]

There is a style that is just Belgian pale ale. If you look up the style on BJCP it will give you some commercial examples and all the info about the style. I've really started getting into belgians recently, I don't know about any books but I'd be interested too if you found anything.

 

[dlaramie08]

You might also look at saison as well. Pretty simple beer.

 

[ronjonacron]

I think the other one i was looking as is designing great beers or something close to that. Im on my phone so im not looking it up, thanks for the pointer on bjcp thats a good idea i forgot they do reference commercial brews.

 

[rexbanner]

Hey, I'm a nanobrewer and I focus on Belgian ales. My flagship beer is a Belgian single called Hopsail. Trappist style ales are usually strong beers that are very dry, with lots of fruity character from Belgian yeast. Single is a lower alcohol beer brewed by monks for personal consumption. Single, dubbel, tripel, and more recently, quadrupel, used to be simply ways to differentiate beers based on alcohol content, based on partigyle brewing. Since the early 20th century, breweries such as Westmalle have redefined the styles. I wrote a blog post on the subject, check it out: http://crookedrunbrewing.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/abbey-ales-the-champagne-of-beers/

 

[LouBrew13]

Look on the simplicity candi syrup site. There are some amazing recipes on there. One in particular is the pale ale. I think it's what you might be looking for. I made it and it was a huge hit. Denny chimed in when I was asking about it and he worked with the co. on recipes.

 

[Teromous]

You will want to get Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus. It has a lot of great information about brewing Belgian beers. Aside from brewing knowledge, it has a lot of history and some storytelling. I highly recommend it, because all of the questions you are addressing are talked about.

 

[Cyclman]

+1 on Brew like a Monk. Do a simple Belgian Blonde. Easy, delicious, strong. Dubbels are dark (drinking one right now, love it), Trippels are pale in color, but high alcohol.

Belgos are my absolute favorites, the top of the beer food chain IMO. Yeasty, estery, lots of phenolics. Only bad thing I can think if is that they take lots of patience. But it is worth it.

 

[helibrewer]

Brew Like a Monk. Designing Great Beers is an excellent book but it doesn't have one page about Belgian beer. They are my favorite beer to brew and drink, I'm just not into the 100IBU, IIPA, Imperial everything, thing

 

[TNGabe]

Farmhouse Ales by Markowski is a great read, too.

 

[phenry]

Two specific ones that i really enjoyed were three philosophers (though a little on the get schwasted after 2 side) and the unibroque coriander citrusy one. If that helps guide my original question at all.

Blanche de Chambly? That's a witbier. Lots of good recipes floating around for those.

 

[RIC0]

Start of with a belgian white. Simple and taste good, one of my favorite homebrews, I brew a batch dam near every month or close to it.